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World's Leading Service and Solution Providers Forge Path to Open Digital Economy

ORLANDO, Fla. --(Business Wire)--

Management World Americas 2012 - As the market for enterprise digital
services gathers pace, TM
Forum today announced the launch of its Open Digital Economy Group,
a new action group formed to address the challenges of delivering
reliable, secure and scalable enterprise digital services. Comprising
nine of the world's largest service and solution providers, the group
will provide strategic guidance and executive support for TM Forum's
recently launched Digital
Services Initiative which focuses on overcoming the end-to-end
management challenges of complex digital services, enabling an open and
vibrant digital economy.

Already, Accenture (News - Alert), China Mobile, France Telecom-Orange, IBM, Microsoft
Corp., Oracle, Telecom Italia, Telefónica Digital and Telstra have
joined the group with the goals of providing executive guidance and
support, including strategic direction and consultation; representing
company and ecosystem interests to help shape TM Forum's Digital
Services Initiative; and acting as representatives for the initiative
within their company and the broader industry as a whole, encouraging
broader engagement and support.

With a global presence, TM Forum's Open Digital Economy Group will drive
the Digital Services Initiative to:

Accelerate the development of open, interoperable enterprise-grade
digital services built on flexible cloud and network platforms;

Develop easy-to-manage multi-partner, multi-cloud service platforms to
optimize end-to-end service integration across the ecosystem;

Collaborate across the ecosystem to agree on transparent language,
KPIs and best practices for enterprise-grade digital services that
consistently exceed customer expectations.

"The first decade of the digital revolution focused on the consumer, and
the next will focus on the consumerization of the enterprise," said Nik
Willetts, chief strategy officer, TM Forum. "Enterprise-grade digital
services ranging from enterprise IT-as-a-Service, to eHealth, Smart City
and machine-to-machine are transforming companies and entire industries.
But these services demand new levels of security, reliability and
service assurance. Delivering these requirements necessitates an
ecosystem that works together-and our Open Digital Economy group brings
together industry leaders to do just that."
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"Success in digital services demands collaboration across the ecosystem:
communications service providers delivering innovative services through
partnerships," said Monte Hong, managing director, Communications
Industry Group, Accenture. "TM Forum has a key role to play in uniting
the industry to overcome the end-to-end management challenges for new
services, and we're proud to join the Open Digital Economy Group to help
make this happen."

"As the Chinese communications market begins to mature, we see digital
services as a significant opportunity for growth," noted Mr. Liu Aili,
executive vice president and board member, China Mobile Communications.
"TM Forum and the Open Digital Economy Group will play a key role in
leading the communications industry to a successful future in digital
services."

"Things are moving very rapidly in the new digital economy," said Pascal
Viginier, group chief information officer, France Telecom-Orange. "It is
key to keep an open ecosystem where all service providers can play a
role in the value chain and deliver a compelling and secure user
experience for these new services. France Telecom-Orange strongly
supports the TM Forum's Open Digital Economy Group and Digital Services
Initiative."

"Enterprise digital services will unlock the next wave of IT
rationalization, and represent a very real opportunity for new growth in
the communications sector," said Scott Stainken, general manager, IBM (News - Alert)
Global Telecommunications Industry. "As a long standing member of TM
Forum, we're pleased to support the Open Digital Economy Group and its
efforts to enable a vibrant ecosystem for digital services."

"This initiative is important to help address challenges and deliver on
the promises of the new digital ecosystem. Software, services and
devices must be able to work together seamlessly," said Bob De Haven,
general manager, Worldwide Communications and Media Industries,
Microsoft (News - Alert). "TM Forum's Open Digital Economy Group is designed to bring
stakeholders together and achieve the consensus needed to move forward."

"The digital revolution creates significant growth opportunities for the
communications industry, but it also changes the rules of the game,"
noted Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle (News - Alert)
Communications. "As a leader in open interoperability and long-standing
advocate of collaboration, Oracle strongly supports the goals of the
Open Digital Economy Group and is eager to participate."

"Digital has the potential to empower our customers to do things
differently and drive huge efficiencies in the way we operate. We
believe to do that requires open ecosystems and open access to digital
services built on partnerships and open innovation," said Brendan
O'Rourke, chief information officer, Telefónica (News - Alert) Digital. "TM Forum's
Open Digital Economy Group is an essential step toward driving the
consensus needed to make that happen."

About TM Forum:

TM Forum is a global, non-profit association focused on enabling service
provider agility and innovation. As an established thought-leader in
complex service management, the Forum serves as a unifying force across
industries, enabling more than 900 member companies to solve critical
business issues through access to a wealth of knowledge, practical
tools, best practices and standards.

The Forum provides a fair and safe environment for collaboration across
the value-chain to overcome the barriers to a vibrant, open digital
economy. We help member companies of all sizes gain a competitive edge
by enabling efficiency and agility in their IT and operations while
protecting competitive differentiation. For more information, visit www.tmforum.org.